Lisa Kallai - January 28, 2008

Daily Life at School

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So, what was a typical day like at that school?

You know, I can hardly remember. Well, it was organized, you know, organized breakfast...we all had to work, and we had, we had to, we had to help. The household was run by the children and we had...we worked in the kitchen and we worked in other things, had to garden. And in my particular case, I was told that I wasn't fully paid for so I had to spend a whole day working and missing...I missed school regularly once a week. We were never allowed to see our report cards. They were se...they were, they were a secret for some reason and they were sent to the refugee organization that paid for us. And once I did see my report cards and I fou...I discovered I was getting marks for subjects that I never took because I was working on those days so, that didn't exactly make me feel very comfortable.

Do you think they were being paid by the student?

Um, I was told by the refugee committee later...by chance I went to the refugee committee for something else and I said, "Well of course, you know I was only partly paid for," and they said, "Nonsense, we paid fully for you." So, I don't know really what was going on.

How long were you there?

It's not um, from '39 to Christmas '41. I did...took my matriculation then. I was fortunate that I was a good student so I was allowed to take matriculation because they only allowed good students to take matriculation because they wanted the record of 100 percent success. So I was fortunate in being allowed to take matriculation and I left school after that. I went to an English school after that.

In Surrey?

No, in London.

In London.

In London I was evacuated with that school and that was a different story.

And you were fourteen when you were matriculated?

No, fifteen.

Fifteen.

Fifteen and a half.

What was the different story about the London school?

I was really happy there. It was an English girls school and there was no problem.